Q2 NY Resolutions Update, and Unicorns

Some costs were harder to cut than others.

Hi everyone! I can’t believe half the year has gone by already – it’s been busy here. I’ve been successful with 90% of my New Years resolutions over the past three months. Check out my resolutions below, I had everything from from making more time with friends and family; to developing better financial habits; to devising a plan to increase income:

Resolution 1: I want to put together a plan to increase my earning potential – PASS

The first part of that plan to start my Social Work degree (BSW) so I can earn more money.

But why Social Work? It’s not exactly reputed to be a high-earning field and there’s a high burn-out rate as well.

Okay, let’s see if I can break this down:

I am currently employed with a Provincial Health Region in Canada as an Outreach Worker. I have a B.A. in Psychology and have “topped out” my earning potential in this particular category at approximately $30.00/hour. Because the health region is subject to union collective agreements, there are some pretty strict rules about education, training requirements and pay increases.

What about job opportunity? I’ve been tracking career opportunities with the Provincial Health Region over the past year and for every three jobs that I am qualified to apply for with my Bachelors, there are seven that I can easily qualify for with a BSW. So there are about 70% more opportunities in Social Work than there are with my current degree – so the career potential is wide and varied.

What about salary? Well, for an intermediate Social Work position, my work experience plus education will give me a salary ranging from $35 to $47 per hour. After five years’ experience (which I currently have), I would be eligible for about $40/hr. There are still higher positions that pay more after more years of experience.

What about the cost of the education? That works out well as I am able to draw upon a flex spending account of $2300 to cover tuition. This spending account renews yearly and will cover about 75% of my tuition costs. There is also a scholarship available through the region that covers about $4000 a year for education in a job-related area of study. So between all of these things, the education is essentially free. Or pretty close to free.

What about taking time off work to do classwork? I applied for the part-time degree program that offers all courses online or through similar distance education options. It is designed with the working professional in mind and will flex easily around my schedule. I won’t have to take any extra time off for courses – with the exception of a two week stint at the University for a particular course.

Oh wait, the other really cool thing! Because I will be a part-time student for the next twelve months – I plan on taking classes in the summer, as well – there will be a nice tax refund at the end of the year. That couple of grand I’m likely to get back will go directly to paying down our consumer debt. Essentially, going to school will pay down my debt.

As part of my plan to increase my/our income, my husband and I decided to rent out our basement to a tenant for $800 a month. Our tenant will move in August and we have a detailed plan as to how we will use this money to better our financial situation. The side benefit of this is that we get to diversify our income streams to include more than just our “day jobs”.

I do have plans to monetize this blog at some point but I’m not exactly sure how to go about that quite yet. I’m not interested in plastering my blog with sub-par advertisements and dodgy sponsored posts about “the five myths about payday loans”. I suppose all of this will come with time – it’s only been four months.*

Resolution 2. I will make plans to spend more time with friends – FAIL

I’ve been spending time with a couple of my close friends but this has been only every few weeks. I don’t really know what I consider a ‘pass’ in this section, but I know it’s not the Ignore-Fest that I’ve been rolling with in the past three months.

Meet new people!

I do want to try some new things and broaden my social circle but I haven’t really been putting myself out there. It’s a good project for Patio and BBQ Season – AKA Summer.

Resolution 3. I will start tracking my finances and educate myself on how to save money and pay down my debt – PASS

I’ve been tracking my expenses consistently since I made the goal originally back in February. This has shown me a number of areas where I was spending way too much on things I didn’t want or need. Here are some changes that I’ve made since then:

Cancelled our landline that cost us $35.00 a month. All three of us have cell phones and we never, ever used the phone for anything – it was like flushing forty bucks down the toilet.

Downgraded our cable package to the most basic one offered. We ended up saving another $30.00 on this one every month as well.

Made changes to my cell phone bill – reducing or cancelling features and add-ons that I didn’t really need. This saved me another $35.00 a month.

Created a budget for entertainment spending. Since then, I’ve been much better at working within my limits.

Cancelled our satellite radio plan which works out to $400/year or $33/month in savings.

Reduced how much I spent on clothes by holding swap parties** and being open to clothing hand-me-downs from other people (thanks mom). To estimate, I’ve saved about $400 a year on this expense, or $33 a month. (This is a conservative estimate)

These savings total to be about $170 a month or almost $2000 a year – and we didn’t really have to change our behaviour at all. A Netflix subscription and listening to local radio is as sacrificial as it’s gotten so far – and frankly, Netflix is better. I will have to change my behaviour with the reduction in my Ipad data plan but I’m pretty sure I can adapt to getting what I need from my Iphone data plan.

Resolution 4. Be open to new opportunities/bring good things into my life -PASS

I think starting this blog, starting my degree, and being open to new ways of improve my financial situation have improved my life dramatically. It’s been covered in the other sections so I won’t repeat myself here. Year 2013 is my year!

5. Work on my time management skills and a better work/project/life balance – In progress

Yeah, this is still a work in progress. I’m a little obsessed with all my side projects – I need to balance a little better.

*This isn’t to say I’m not open to advertisements and sponsored posts; I just want to be careful that whatever I allow on the site is consistent with my overall messaging. That is, if anyone will actually care to advertise with my blog at some point. 😉

**Swap parties are parties that you can hold with your friends. You ask everyone to bring their gently used clothes and then you “swap” them between each other in the group.

Fist bump! Super excited to see how many of your goals you've achieved. Social work takes a very special type of person. Don't forget to schedule down time so that you stay fresh. I love the art work btw. If those are yours...and I think they are-you should make an ebook. They are AWESOME!

Hey Michelle! The art work is, indeed, mine. I enjoy being able to add a little bit of extra expression into my articles - I feel like it brings it to life in a kind of a fun way. :) Thanks for the compliments on my MS Paint Masterpieces! As long as people are enjoying them, I'll keep doing them.
Thanks also for the kind words re: my progress - I'm feeling really positive about it!

Sounds like some pretty good progress. I applaud anyone that is able to get in some extra schooling while working. It is not easy. Definitely make sure to focus on the work/life balance. I have a tendency to get wrapped up in other things as well. It is a good thing to stop and smell the roses a bit.

I work part time (day job) so that should make it easier for me to do what I need to do for school and keep the blog going. I'm not sure that I'd be able to do all of this without a lighter work schedule.
Summer is a good time to practice a good work/life balance - so many fun things to do! Thanks for stopping by!

Hey Anthony, it has been a good first half of the year for my goals. Like you said, the savings didn't really require a bunch of changes - we only had to look at what we were spending our money on and consciously evaluating the worth of each purchase to save that much money. I would say it's my best achievement so far. :)

Great work! Half way through the year, and you've already passed many of them. I like that you managed to save almost $2000 and as you said you didn't really notice a change in your behaviour at all. Those are best types of savings. Keep up the great work and good luck with the rest of your goals.

I like your education plan! I had a similar plan when I decided to move from biomedical research into software engineering. My job gave me tuition benefits which I used to pay for the majority of the degree while a co-op work placement paid for the rest. So worth it!

First: I just love your images. They make me laugh. :)
Congratulations on reaching so many of your goals! I can't believe how beneficial going back to school is for you. It's fantastic that you've found a way to make it work for you before you even get your degree. Best of luck to you over this next year. I've been going to school full time on top of working full time, and it's a handful.
I love resolution 4. I firmly believe that if you open your heart and mind to possibilities, good things happen!

Wow! School and work full-time? That takes true dedication, my hat is off to you Alexandra.
The goals have been a great motivator for me this year and documenting them this way has made them so much more real! Number four came to me after I realized I was saying "No" more than I was saying anything else. I knew I had to start re-framing stuff if I wanted to get out of my comfort zone. Thanks for stopping by!

I always get worried about sponsored posts too and feel bad about it, but then I see I get paid $125 ish for less than one hours work-especially when freelance work is SLOW, then I think ah fuck it. ha ha! But I do try and balance it out and make sure my own voice does not get buried in a sea of finance babble. I love your professional goals. I need to really sit down and pen out what I want to accomplish both with my blog and video editing. BTW I think you could totally charge for your artwork for other sites. They always make me giggle. Keep up the good work!

Hey Tonya,
I've always thought your blog was well done, buddy. I certainly wouldn't look down on sponsored posts or advertising - they can offer some good advice (although usually basic) and a girl needs to make a living! I would be over the moon if someone offered me $125 for an hours' worth of work. Maybe I should be talking to you about advertising...hmmm...

You're doing so great, Lindsey! Going back to school looks like a huge win to me. I haven't monetized my blog - beyond selling my books. I've been getting more request too, which is exciting, but like you - I want to be very selective in how I monetize my blog. I think it's important consideration but being a PF blogger, you really need to lead by example.

Yes, I think that's what is concerning me most about monetizing. What advertising should be on the site: Credit cards? Loan services? What do I want to promote? There's a lot of questions...
Thanks for the support! As usual, you're a superstar!

You are certainly doing an awesome job so far. I am right there with you though I need to try and put more time toward my friends especially the ones that live in a different city now. It is just so tough when life gets busy.

Yeah, long distance makes it harder. I have a good friend that lives in a different province and we talk to each other in the mornings on the way to work most days (I have hands free). It's not a long chat - usually only about 15 minutes but it keeps the lines open. There's some easy way of doing it - I guess it depends on the nature of the friendship.

Great work Lindsey! The monetization aspect can be a tricky one as you can start to get all sorts of people contacting you to run this or that. Once you start it is fairly easy to make your way through it and the nice thing is there are plenty of people out there you can ask questions of. :)

Hey John, Thanks for the feedback re: monetization. I think one of the concerns I have, along with maintaining standards, is what to ask for certain things. I know it's highly individual to each blog and each advertiser's requests but I wish there was a manual!
Anyway, I'll probably be sending out some feelers to fellow bloggers in the near future regarding these questions. Thanks!

Looks like a lot of great progress Lindsey! I've been thinking about the question of monetizing as well and have a lot of the same reservations. Mostly I don't want to mess up the message of my blog. For now I'm still focusing on making the content as good as possible and getting more traffic. I think the monetization will follow.

Thanks, Matt! Yeah, I'm not exactly flooded with offers or anything but I do want to maintain a certain standard for my blog (as much as a blog with stick figure art can claim standards ;))
I am happy with my progress so far on my goals. I'm looking forward to getting more of the debt paid down and starting my degree! Cheers!

Lindsey looks to me you are doing a great job on the goals and seem to have everything planned out for school so I know you will do great. As for hanging out with friends I would say Im failing at that as well. But for now they understand since we have a new baby, my brother moved down, my blog and my firm there is just a lot on the plate right now. Side projects can be a time killer so make sure you get that under control.

I would say you have more than enough on your plate - wow, that's a lot! I am sure your friends understand that you have crazy-busy scheduled for the next little while.
I think I just need to be able to put away the computer and understand the world will go on without me sitting on Twitter or whatever...
Oh well, a work in progress!

It sounds like you have some goals that you are hoping to achieve and that's great. I don't advertise on my own on my blog as I'm not on self-hosted but I will once I move. I'm not too sure what to expect but I've got pages of advertisers who have emailed me the past year and a half. I have many blogger friends who are always willing to help so turn to those that you feel comfortable with to give you the truth about it all. Keep up the great work! I'm hoping to get you over to the grocery game with us!